Piracy Prevention, the creative way.

Solar2D Daily Builds and Public Releases
#1

It would be awesome if Ansca could provide some piracy prevention measures in their SDK or even better something include. I am a fan of getting creative with pirates to convert them over.

A piracy detection function would be great.This way we can display a message. Display a graphic or even do some crazy stuff in a game or app.

Say if I had a car game I would make one of the tires explode just before the finish line, then ask them to buy the game or do it after they make a new record. There are a million things to be done.

I was reading this article http://www.bloggersbase.com/internet/iphone-piracy-101-steps-to-prevent-it/

There seems to be some checks to the info.plist file that can be done [import]uid: 8192 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 305006[/import]

#2

Could turn the ads back on too.

More info

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/846309/reducing-piracy-of-iphone-applications

http://thwart-ipa-cracks.blogspot.com/2008/11/detection.html [import]uid: 8192 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 16332[/import]

#3

I’m thinking the same. Maybe the “In App Purchase” could be a solution: to download levels upon purchase. [import]uid: 26642 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 19205[/import]

#4

Piracy sucks!
Just the day after I’ve updated my app, a cracked version has been posted online…
Anyway… The Info.plist check is not reliable. The new cracks don’t need to change it (my cracked app online has the same info.plist)… However, there are some file missing, so there should be some way to find out if the app has been cracked.
I’ve checked the code of my app compiled with Corona and unfortunately in one file you can actually see some part of code… I wonder if it’s the same with app compiled with Xcode…

I think to find a way to fight piracy we need:

  1. To actually understand if the user is running a cracked app (it’s not just checking the info.plist I guess)
  2. Activate some sort of piracy protection, but not from the first app launch… Probably after few days or something like that, otherwise the bad guys are going to understand how the protection works…
  3. Maybe… The piracy protection could at the beginning just silently send ip addresses/udid or other info to a server… In this way we could create a blacklist of users with cracked app.
  4. have some sort of online check… In case the app has been cracked (or the user has been blacklisted), it could show a specific error message asking to update the software or contact the developer…

I mean, I think it could be more useful to just acquire more info and understand how many people are using a pirated app (and next decide how to fight piracy) than showing a huge alert “YOU PIRATE!” and crashing the app :wink: [import]uid: 9158 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 20037[/import]

#5

shedder : can you send me details of the cracked app?

C [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 20073[/import]

#6

Carlos, it sounds like you guys might have some plans. Anything you can share? I am sure it’s a big topic for everyone.

@shedder. How do you find out how many pirated copies are being used? Do you just compare analytics and itunes connect? [import]uid: 8192 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 20236[/import]

#7

@amigoni, can you mail me at ruben(at)pxlartificer.com ?

My two cents on fighting app piracy (sorry if there are some weird sentences or grammatical errors… English is not my first language ;))…

I’m 100% sure it’s impossible to actually win against piracy, however we should at least try fighting it (or use it somehow to actually increase sales).

It’s important however to understand the problem and don’t jump to the wrong assumption that 100.000 pirated copies x 0.99$ = OMG I’ve lost 99.000USD!
I think the majority of people using pirated apps, download many apps because they’re free (for them), maybe they use them just few times, maybe not… but the thing is, they would have never bought them if they had to pay.
However, I guess maybe 20% of those users could have been potential customers…

So, instead of just focusing on trying to block pirated apps with some code, showing a message and crashing the app, I think it would be better to stay in stealth mode, spy the pirates, understand the problem and then, if necessary, plan a countermeasure.

The steps would be, for example:

  1. Find a reliable way to detect if the app has been cracked
  2. Send, silently, data to a server to gather some infos on pirated apps users (how many people, where they are, and so on)
  3. Quantify the piracy problem (is it really that bad? If it’s not hurting too much the sales, there’s no need to spend time trying to fight it).

Then, if we want to fight back, instead of just blocking pirated apps, we should probably plan some strategies to:

  1. Try to convert pirated app users to paying users (focusing on that 20% of potential customers among the pirates)
  2. Use the other 80% of pirated app users, who would have never bought your app, to actually help increase the sales of your app.

For point 1), some strategies could be locking the app in some “lite” mode, or limiting some functionality and asking the user to upgrade/download again the app or reinstall it (anyway, bugging the user with some kind of technical error message, but not revealing we’ve actually find out he’s using a pirated copy)…
For point 2), any social network integration, or “share with your friends” could work… I mean, if I can post something to facebook or twitter from my (pirated) app, all my friends are going to see it… some of them could get interested in the app, someone will download a pirated copy, but the majority with non jailbroken iPhone will probably buy it…

Anyway, my point is, if you find a way to detect if your app has been cracked, don’t fight back too soon/too hard. Otherwise they’ll understand you have a countermeasure in place and in a few hours they will release a new cracked version (and you lose the chance to actually do something against piracy)…

If someone is interested on this topic (maybe with some ideas, code example or something like that), we could talk and share info… but it would be better to don’t do it on public forums…

My email is ruben (at) pxlartificer.com
[import]uid: 9158 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 20272[/import]

#8

Carlos, I would highly recommend looking into Dr. Touch aka Oliver Drobnik’s Anticrack API.

http://www.cocoanetics.com/anticrack/

I bought this about two years ago and I don’t think I have seen a cracked version of my app anywhere.

It’s donationware, but if you can license his code to be usable for all Corona apps, I’m sure it would help him out a great deal. [import]uid: 6084 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 21406[/import]

#9

I know this thread is a little old but I thought I would post here with my first experience on releasing an iPhone app.

I had no idea how widespread this piracy issue was…we just released our first game and it was cracked on day 1 and I am seeing pirated versions of it all over the place. A Google search for my app “Dino Dodger” will show several of these pirated versions on the first page.

My OpenFeint leaderboards show some 600+ high scores count, which I think should be unique users (unless people have created multiple OpenFeint accounts?) however I have only received something like 30 or 40 paid downloads…

I mean I know most of the people who pirated it probably wouldn’t have paid for it in the first place but man I really don’t like to see links to pirated versions of my game in Google search results that easy for people to find who might legitimately be trying to buy our game.

Any advice? Or do I just have to live with it?

Thanks all,

-Clark [import]uid: 5786 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27256[/import]

#10

@bonesmalone133 – that really sucks. [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27262[/import]

#11

Yea well what are ya gonna do I guess, I suppose I am just happy there is at least some interest in my game…even if it is among the pirates lol [import]uid: 5786 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27286[/import]

#12

Dino Dodger is on new and noteworthy #1 on the app panel

[import]uid: 24 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27288[/import]

#13

Well now this may be some good news! Although I jumped on to see if I could grab a screen cap and I don’t see it, must have missed it already. [import]uid: 5786 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27297[/import]

#14

@bonesmalone133 Congrats for the new and noteworthy, I really like the graphics of your app!

About the piracy thing… my advice:

  • Don’t waste time sending DMCA takedown notices to the filehosting services (it takes a day or two to takedown an app and one minute to upload a new one)

  • You can send Google a DMCA takedown notice to remove the content from specific searches. If you google the name of your app and in the first pages you have pirated content, well, a letter to google could help (and you can do everything online now, here’s the link http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=ts.cs&ts=1114905)

-Most effective. Download the cracked app, unzip it and compare all the files with a genuine version. Cracked app are similar, but sometimes a file or two are missing. Now you can code a simple check to show a message or disable some functions for pirated apps… up to you
[import]uid: 9158 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27307[/import]

#15

Thanks for the info shedder, yea i figured trying to contact the filehosting services themselves would be a dead end. I guess I will see if I can get anywhere with that Google link.

I will also see what I can decipher by looking through those cracked versions of the app.

Are Corona games more susceptible to this sort of thing or is it just that common with all iOS games out there?

On a better note the game has been reviewed on Gizmodo so hopefully that will draw some more legitimate buyers towards the game! [import]uid: 5786 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27359[/import]

#16

Not for nuttin’…

The other side of this coin is that legit users who pay have no idea that 500+ people in the open feint are not legit… which could be a buzz builder for the app.

Plus, it is somewhat free advertising … I do not jailbreak my iPhone, but I do have friends with jail broken phones… and I have legitimately paid for apps they’ve hacked onto their phone because they later recommended them to me.

Fact is those people who steal by installing hack’d apps would never have paid for them. Some of them install hundreds of apps just to try them. They’d never spend hundreds of $$$ to do that.

Apple quietly lets the jailbreak community exist because it is, overall, good for business… Not just for them… There is a silver lining in it for app developers too, IMHO.
[import]uid: 13859 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27366[/import]

#17

Dino Dodger gets its own mention on Gizmodo! Way to go, Clark!

http://ca.gizmodo.com/5780845/about-time-that-someone-made-an-iphone-game-that-combines-jeeps-dinosaurs-and-poop
[import]uid: 6084 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27415[/import]

#18

Yes I am very excited about this!

I’m just hoping it might push down all those links in google searches for my game that point to cracked versions…

I’m starting to get over the fact that it’s out there for free, I just don’t like to see it plastered all over search queries for it. [import]uid: 5786 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27476[/import]

#19

I may be reading into this but a prior comment seems to allude that jail-breakers are pirates. This type of implication is a bit disconcerting. It may not be intended but I have a few words on this :slight_smile:

I concede that jailbreaking may be the “gateway drug” to piracy for some as a crime of opportunity but jail-breaking does not equal piracy. There is a marketplace for buying apps that simply do not meet to Apple’s strict standards for the app store.

  1. It is both legal to jailbreak your phone and unlock your phone
  2. The manufacturer (Apple) nor service provider (AT&T / Verizon) have any legal obligation to help you do it.
  3. Without jail-breaking there are areas of the OS that you simply cannot code for which Apple has kept exclusively privileged for Apple

Reasons to jail-break include ability to have access to OS functions that you simply cannot otherwise. For example, an apps that stand out that I’d purchase is iLocalis that needs access to run a background daemon. Another app (don’t recall the name) allows you to control which app can run in the background and which cannot take up resources. There’s no good way to kill background running apps without jail-breaking.

Of course, there are other apps you can ‘buy’ or is free for fun that’ll allow you to do things like iBlacklist, xGPS (free turn-by-turn nav), Flash, MyWi, VOIP, etc.

Getting back on topic, it would be a value added service if we had protection built-in. This is one headache I don’t want to deal with at all if possible. It’ll be a great reason for me to continue using Corona SDK. [import]uid: 40932 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 27620[/import]

#20

I woke up this morning. Checked Flurry analytics and surprised to see 10x more download than what I saw last night. Checked AppAnnie stat. Not available yet for yesterday. Checked iTunes stat, not available yet. Waited about 30 mins. iTunes show up. Total sale was 1/5-th of what I saw in Flurry. In another hour, Flurry started showing stats for today. Already received half of yesterday’s download. Surprised! I started looking around. Found a site with cracked copy in the 1st of page google search. No wonder why I am seeing so much activities. Shocked! Now all my stats are messed up in Flurry. I was planning to release a free version or give the game for free for a few days. Not sure what I would now. [import]uid: 19297 topic_id: 5006 reply_id: 32672[/import]